INTO

CHAPTER SIX

Gwen had barely slept for four hours when day broke. Lucy woke her, telling her to get up and freshen up and that was when she realized she really wasn't home. It wasn't a vacation where she would have had everything she needed packed and could always call for room service whenever she lacked or wasn't contented with something.

She was away from home. Far away from home.

She washed her face in the bathroom closest to the room and went back to the room to meet her roommates all lurking, unsure of how to start the day.

There was a knock on the door. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah," they strangely replied in unison.

Bernard walked in. "Good morning, girls. How was your night?"

Replies were murmured.

"Anyways, I came to tell you guys to come out for breakfast."

"Breakfast?" Tina asked wide-eyed. "Do y'all eat? What do you eat? Normal food? Gosh, you have no idea how worried I got thinking I might just die of hunger."

Bernard laughed. "Of course, we eat. Y'all seem to forget something. We live just like humans. The only difference is humans are mortals and we're not."

"Cool!"

"Though you might not be able to eat everything you eat back home..."

"It's okay! As long as we don't eat humans or weird things like monkey brains, we'll be fine," Tina replied, excitedly.

"Jeez, are you that hungry?" Gwen shook her head. "You seem like you wouldn't actually have a problem eating that monkey brains if that was the only thing available."

Tina chuckled and smiled at Bernard.

"Well, I'll be expecting y'all outside in a bit then."

Bernard said his final words and left the room, giving the girls the privacy they needed to get ready. In less than ten minutes, they did what they could call getting freshened up and were quickly all out to the living room.

"You guys are here," Bernard immediately spoke up, acknowledging the girl's presence. "Well, how about Adam? Thought you guys were together?"

"I'm here," Adam appeared out of nowhere, waving at his dad. He looked around the house, exchanging glances with everyone, especially Gwen before walking towards his dad. "Good morning."

"Did you have a good night rest, son?"

"It was okay," he replied, giving Gwen another glance.

"Great," Bernard said, dropping the napkin in his hand to walk towards them. "Now that you're all here, there's something I want to say."

"Please tell me you've found a way to get us out of here."

"No, not that, Miranda," Bernard smiled, Miranda groaning. "I just wanted to tell you guys I hope you know you might have to be resuming school soon."

"School?!" Their voices were in unison and contained an equal amount of confusion.

"Yes," Bernard continued, taking a seat. "School."

"There's school here?" asked a wide-eyed Tina.

"Yeah, what?" Miranda continued from Tina's confusion.

"How many times do I have to tell you guys that we live here just the same way you guys do back at the human world?" Bernard laughed. "Yes, kids your age go to school here too."

"Woah."

"The only difference is school here is a lot more exciting," he smiled. "You don't just go to school with a bunch of similar human classmates. You school here with different creatures. Ah, you're taught magic too. Not deep magic but definitely the ones that would still blow your minds away."

"That's... interesting."

"I'm not going," Tina interrupted Adam, all eyes turning in her direction.

"Well that makes us two," Lucy added, earning a questioning look from Gwen.

"Lucy, you aren't going?"

"Of course not," she replied. "I've been out of school since a long time ago. I'm not 17 like the rest of you and I can't sit with a bunch of teens in class learning stuff I'm not interested in."

"Well that makes sense. Giving she doesn't look as young as the rest of you," Bernard nodded. "That's great then. More helping hands at my workshop. Been really busy lately so it'll be appreciated."

Not that she really cared anyways, Gwen asked, "Tina, why do you not want to attend the school?"

She hesitated for a while before speaking up. "School isn't the same for me as it is for you. Everyone worships and loves you. It's not the same for me. I'm teased and bullied everyday so, no. One high school is enough, I can't go through all that here too."

"Ah, human teens," Bernard took a sip of his coffee. "Still as mean as ever.'

"This is the reason you're bullied," Miranda spoke up. "You give the 'tease me' vibe. You allow everyone tease you because trust me, it's fun and for no other reason other than the fact that you allow it."

"Oh. So what am I supposed to do?"

"Firstly, change your look. You dress like a teacher from the 80s."

"Right, I was about to ask," Gwen turned to Bernard. "Bernard, um how do we get clothes? I've been putting on the same clothes since yesterday."

Bernard exhaled. "Finish breakfast, I'll take y'all shopping. Just to get a few clothes and things you might need."

"Okay, thanks," she replied Bernard turning to face Tina. "I don't know why I'm doing this but allow me take charge of your clothes. I can make anyone look good in clothes taken from the trash can."

"That explains your looks at school."

"That couldn't even be funny," Gwen faced Miranda. "Everyone knows I only put on expensive designer clothes except you were to blinded by the price tags to notice but then I remember correctly I always put the price tags into the trash can unless...I accidentally mistook you for the trash can."

"Why do both of you hate each other so much?" Bernard laughed. "I bet you both are going to become really good friends in the future."

"No, thanks. I'm good."

"I'd rather die without friends."

"You're immortal, Miranda," Bernard winked. "So you might have to think that through."

"Whatever. You get my point."

---

The previous day ended pretty fast after they had breakfast. As promised, Bernard took them around to get things they might be needing and they did just that. The clothes sold were neither Gwen's nor Miranda's normal style of clothing but beggars weren't choosers.

After that, they headed back to Bernard's workshop where Lucy familiarized herself with her new job. She seemed to have a hidden passion for painting as she watched Bernard play with colors with awe. By evening, they all left the workshop for Bernard's home to sleep and get ready for the next day.

Morning came faster than expected. Gwen slept not longer than 5 hours as usual and was up by 7am. As early as she thought she was, it turned out she was the latest among them. With a groan, she got up and headed to the bathroom she had now gotten herself familiar with to freshen up.

By 7:40, they were all ready. Gwen wore a black ripped jeans with a plain white t-shirt. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, showing off her pretty forehead and defining her features.

Miranda had a deep green thigh-lenth skirt on with long sleeved black crop top. Unlike Gwen, her dyed red her was hanging loosely all over her shoulders.

Tina, dressed up by Gwen, wore a knee length black shorts, bright yellow top and black sandals. Her ginger hair was tied up in a neat bun unlike her normal style of leaving it hanging loosely around her shoulders.

"Are you guys ready?" Bernard signalled his arrival as he walked into the space that could be referred to as the living room. With Adam by his side in a regular jean and black top, they really did look father and son.

"Yup," they replied in unison.

"I'll take you guys to the school. I already spoke to the principal about you so don't worry, you'll be placed in the same class with people your age. You're all 17, right?" He asked and on seeing them nod, he continued. "Cool. Let's go then. Lucy, will you-"

"I'll be at your workshop!" She said, excitedly even before he could suggest it. "I already know my way around so don't worry about me."

"Okay, thanks," he replied. "Let's go."

On his cue, they all left the house.

Unlike back at home, there were no cars thus the only mode of transportation was by foot. Luckily for them, the school wasn't really far so even by foot they were able to get there in about 20 minutes.

The weather gave a different vibe from the two previous days they'd spent at Movillster and all Gwen could think about was how quick the weather changed and how unpredictable it was. She had gotten used to the cloud's frequent color change and constant threats to rain or snow and eventually doing none.

Movillster felt nothing like home. The streets were different. At home she was used to tarred roads, tall buildings with light bulbs hanging around every corner of them and fancy cars parading the street but all she had here was grass floors, unstructured buildings and strange people appearing everytime she blinked.

It was very unusual.

The school had to be the most fascinating place they'd all been during their two day old stay at Movillster. It was a multiple storied building with an ancient and unique architectural design.

They stepped in, the woman at the entrance smiling at them to reveal a now familiar fangs at the corner of her teeth. After escorting them to the first floor, Bernard said his goodbyes. Adam could tell from his eyes that even he didn't say it, he was glad. He was glad he was getting to do things he couldn't do with him properly. On his first day at school back at home, he couldn't drive him as he wanted to. He couldn't hand him a paper bag of fruits and lunch as he bid him goodbye. Instead, it was Adam bidding him goodbye from his life permanently. Or so he'd thought, his dad was only few inches away from him now.

"Let's go, guys."

They pulled the door to their designated classroom revealing a room filled with students. The room was wide and had a irregular sitting arrangement. The wide blackboard at the front was dusty from continuos failed attempts to try to get all the chalk away and filled with weird drawings. A teacher stood in front of them, explaining new things and stopped on hearing the door open.

"Um, hello?" Adam spoke up as they walked in side by side.

"Oh, hello there!" the teacher had an unusual accent. He wore khaki pants with a blue polo. He had dark hair brushed and tucked neatly behind his hairs with the aid of his glasses. "May I help you? Oh, you're the new kids! The Caesars?"

"Yes," it was Miranda's turn to speak. "The Caesars."

"Oh, alright. Take your seats," he said, observing them as they walked in. "Oh, you're more than I thought. Four, cool. So you're all Drezpires?"

"Mhm."

"Nice nice," he smiled. "Oliver, Raymond, Stefan, Petal and a few more are Drezpires just like you! I do hope you all get along. Oh, right. Introduce yourselves, will you?"

His eyes were on Gwen as she took a seat by the last row. "Oh. Hi, I'm Gwen."

"Kwen?"

"No," she fought the urge to roll her eyes as she corrected her new classmate. "Gwen. Short for Gwendolyn."

"Oh, new."

"I'm Adam."

"I'm Miranda."

"I'm Tina," Tina ended the introduction. "Short for Christina."

"Okay," he clapped his hands. "Adam, Miranda, Tina and-"

He paused, looking at Gwen making her wonder what was going to come out of his mouth.

"And Kwen!"

Gwen cursed under her breathe at the mispronunciation of her name for a second time. G W E N. What was so hard about that?

"Ah, sorry for the late introduction. I'm Mr Crooks. Your history teacher. Come to this fella if you have any questions about history. Be if present, past or even the future!" He said with excitement. There was something about his voice. It always hinted a type of excitement and enthusiasm. "So, little monsters, where were we?"

"Humans! We were talking about humans!" the girl sitting next to Gwen squealed making Gwen jump. She jumped for two reasons. One was that the girl had a creepy squeaky voice and two, she felt like they were talking about her. "You were answering Petal's question on why we hated humans."

"Oh, yes," he smiled. "Why we hate humans."